ArticleArchives of women's mental health2025
Longitudinal associations between prenatal internalizing symptoms and mindfulness traits with postnatal bonding difficulties.
Article in Archives of women's mental health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Interactive movement- and mindfulness-based interventions for promoting parent-infant bonding in the postpartum period.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Understanding parental bonding in the first two years after birth: exploring family predictors using growth mixture modeling.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Neural reactivity to infant faces and trait mindfulness as prospective predictors of postpartum depressive symptoms.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Trajectories of maternal bonding over the perinatal period: Associations with demographic, obstetric, psychological, and infant variables.Infant mental health journal · 2026Article
- Social reward responsiveness as a moderator of the association between perceived bonding with infants and depressive symptoms in postpartum women.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Psychological functioning in pregnant women who experienced complex trauma.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMothers' reported connection, or bond, with their infants develops across the early postnatal period and is relevant to mother and offspring functioning. Little is known, however, about early predictors of bonding difficulties over time. The present study examined prenatal anxiety, depressive symptoms, and trait mindfulness and variation in bonding difficulties in mothers across the first two months postnatal.
methodsParticipants were 120 pregnant women (M
resultsUsing multilevel modeling to account for within-person repeated assessments, we found an inverted U-shaped pattern across time such that bonding difficulties initially worsened before improving around five weeks postnatal. Prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms were longitudinally associated with greater bonding difficulties overall and were unrelated to the trajectory of change. The mindfulness facets of acting with awareness and being nonjudging of one's own experience were longitudinally associated with less bonding difficulties overall, weaker initial increases in bonding difficulties, and earlier improvements.
conclusionsPrenatal anxiety and depression may be risk factors for bonding difficulties that are persistent across the early postnatal period. In contrast, mindfulness tendencies before childbirth, specifically acting with awareness and being nonjudging towards oneself, may support early feelings of bonding over time.
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